Santa and his elves
by Topsy2k6
Summary: Noel's friend Graham is involved in an RTC and is in ITU. On discovering that his 6-year-old daughter has never seen Christmas (in any sense of the word), Noel devises a mission to change this. Can his coleagues help him and how harmonious will it be? This is my first ever fic so please bare with me. Reviews are welcome! Hope you enjoy!
1. RTC

Chapter 1: RTC

It was 21st December. The residents of Holby had all put up their decorations, lights twinkled from every window and the landscape was white with a thick fall of snow that had taken everyone by surprise the night before. In spite of this minor setback, however, the people of the city seemed determined that the unexpected bad weather wasn't going to deter them from completing their Christmas shopping and the high street was heaving with people.

Noel Garcia stepped out of the sweet shop and pulled his scarf more firmly around his neck. "Blow secret Santa," he thought darkly. "In fact, blow Christmas!"

He hated this time of year. No, that wasn't quite right. He didn't mind the compulsive consumption of junk food, the copious amount of alcohol to be drunk, the department's Christmas party and its custom of the old tradition of secret Santa, but he hated not having anyone to share Christmas day with. It was the same every year – a Christmas ready meal from Marks and Spenser's and a couple of mince pies. As for decorations, bah humbug! There was no point. He was the only one in his house to appreciate them and he was the one who had to do all the bloody hard work putting the things up and taking them down after the celebrations were over.

He turned his back on the high street and began to tramp laboriously along the pavement through 3 inches of snow away from town and in the general direction of the hospital. The way this weather was going, he considered, he'd probably end up in there over Christmas with a severe case of hypothermia. Still, it was much safer walking than taking a car when the roads were this bad – well, unless you had a 4 by 4!

As if to prove this correct, a red Escort suddenly flew past him far too quickly and skidded on to the pavement as the driver stamped on the brake. Noel only just managed to jump out of its path in time as it skidded to a stop centimetres from him. Slightly shaken and very angry, he waded through the snow to the driver's window and knocked on it hard. The man wound his window down and stared out at Noel who began, "you idiot! 3 inches of snow on the ground and there are still people who think they can drive like morons!"

The driver didn't reply – just stared at the man shouting at him on the other side of the window.

"Noel?" he asked uncertainly, "is that you?"

Noel looked at the man more closely and then beamed in recognition.

"Graham! What on earth are you doing in Holby?"

"just passing through," shrugged the man called Graham – a sad expression on his face. "Me and Sophie fancied a change this year."

Noel looked over at the little girl with curly brown hair and big blue eyes who was sitting in the back of the car and appeared to be looking down at her feet.

"Hi ya, trouble!"

"Hello uncle Noel!"

Though Sophie said the words with apparently enthusiastic recognition, she continued to look down at her feet. Noel wasn't surprised or phased by this. She had been blind since she was born and he had spent enough time with Graham in the past 6 years to watch how she'd grown up adapting to this disability.

"Hop in. I'll give you a lift. It's freezing," offered Graham but Noel shook his head.

"It's only a couple of minutes walk from here, mate. I'll be alright. We'll meet up for a drink over Christmas though!"

He waved enthusiastically and shouted a cheerful goodbye to Sophie as the car drove away and then waded on towards the hospital.

Graham drove much more carefully along the road after leaving Noel. After a few yards, he turned onto a fast-moving duel carriageway and tentatively picked up speed until he was level with the rest of the traffic. Everything went smoothly for a couple of miles, then he noticed the long stationary queue ahead of him at another roundabout. He braked … not quite quickly enough, smacking into the back of the car in front of him. Unable to find any purchase on the icy road under their wheels, the two vehicles smashed into a third car, then a fourth before finally coming to a catastrophic and incredibly noisy stop – the drivers of the vehicles behind staring out of their windows at the horror unfolding before their eyes.


	2. Tidings Of Discomfort And Joy

Chapter 2: tidings of discomfort and joy

There had been a lull in his work load when Noel witnessed the first of the casualties from the RTC being brought in by paramedics Dixie and Jeff – a middle-aged woman with a piece of metal sticking out of her abdomen and several burns. When she'd been handed over to Zoe and Tom, Noel caught Dixie's eye and asked, "have you got any details for her?"

"Yes," said Dixie and gave him her particulars which he fed efficiently into his computer. He was about to pick up the phone and make a call when his attention was caught by two more paramedics wheeling an unconscious, bloodstained body in on a stretcher. He got a brief look at the man's face and jumped to his feet.

"Graham! My god!"

Sam Nicholls, who had rushed out to meet the paramedics heard Noel's astonished words.

"You know him?"

"Yes!" and Noel explained about his meeting with the man and his daughter only a few minutes before.

"Where's Sophie? Have they found Sophie?" he asked suddenly realising she wasn't with her father, nor the paramedics.

"Not yet."

Noel looked shocked. Shouting at Louise, his reception buddy to keep things going for a while, he ran to the double doors to the outside world but was forced back into the building by another crew of paramedics – this time, pushing a young woman in her 20s who was also bleeding in several places and screaming hysterically. Noel stared around him, horrified. All the victims of the accident so far looked as though they'd suffered a lot more than the odd scrape. He was hoping against hope that little Sophie was alright. If she wasn't injured, she'd be scared out of her wits – not able to see the chaos around her but able to feel it.

"Ned, what's the matter with you? You've seen RTC's before," said a gruff, almost unfriendly voice behind him. He turned around to find Dylan Keogh staring at him with something like incredulity as he continued, "if you can't handle accidents and emergencies, go and work in the canteen!"

Seeing the ED's least approachable doctor, however, had given Noel an idea.

"Dr Keogh," he said desperately, "I need a huge favour. I need to borrow the services of you and your land rover."

"You are joking!"

"I wish I was."

He went on to explain the situation to the doctor who resolutely shook his head. Finally, in a moment of desperate madness, Noel offered to buy Dylan every cup of coffee he required throughout the month of January if he would spare him half an hour of his expertise and the use of his relatively snow proof set of wheels. This caused the doctor to grudgingly cave in and the two of them jogged through the double doors and slipped and slid across the staff car-park to the 4 by 4 – Dylan grumbling all the way.

Noel stared in wide-eyed horror at the four smashed-up cars which the recovery services were now attempting to clear from the ice covered duel-carriageway. What a mess! He found the red Escort immediately and ran towards it – a reluctant Dylan following him, the pair of them almost falling over in the snow several times in their haste to reach the car whose back end was mostly intact but had been smashed beyond recognition at the front. It was a miracle the thing hadn't blown up!

Noel reached the back door, pulled the handle and tugged.

"Oi, what you doing?"

A recovery worker had rushed forward to stop the determined receptionist going any further. It was left to a still grumbling Dylan to explain the situation to the bemused workman as Noel edged apprehensively into the car and looked around. Spotting a movement on the floor in front of the back seat, he shuffled across a little way and looked down into the recess behind what was once the driver's seat.

"Sophie!"

The little girl sat cowering in the foot well between the seats, tears streaming down her extremely frightened cheeks. Hearing her name, she turned her face blankly upwards.

"Sophie, it's uncle Noel. Don't worry, I'm going to get some help. Just stay absolutely still for me. I won't be far away."

Noel squeezed out of the car and ran up to the recovery worker and the doctor.

"She's stuck behind the driver's seat on the floor. Can you come and have a look?"

"Alright, Norman. Stay here," said Dylan almost dismissively and began to run forward.

"Noel. And I'm coming with you. I was talking to her earlier. It'll be easier if she hears a voice she recognises."

This time, Noel opened the door on Sophie's side of the car and crouched down in the freezing snow.

"I'm here," he said, "I've brought a doctor to have a look at you. He's got a bit of a scary voice but he's OK."

He was gratified to see the ghost of a smile on the little girl's face.

"Where's my daddy?" she asked tearfully.

"He's in the hospital," said Noel quietly. "We're going to get you out of here in a minute and take you there."

"Will you come too?" she asked.

Noel nodded, then remembered Sophie's disability. "Yes," he said reassuringly, "I'll come too."

"Does anything hurt you, Sophie?" asked Dylan stiffly, who had worked out that nothing was trapping her beneath the seat.

"No."

"In that case, I think we can get her out of here. Can you give me a hand, Neil?"

The two of them manoeuvred a terrified Sophie out of the car and wrapping her in his coat, Noel carried her back to the land rover. As he was strapping her in, 2 more recovery men came running up to the 4 by 4.

"A witness said these belong to the man and the kid in the Escort," one of them said to Dylan, indicating the two large holdalls they were carrying. "Looks like they were going away for Christmas."

Wordlessly, Dylan took the bags and dumped them into the boot of the vehicle before scrambling hastily into the driver's seat and starting the engine. Noel saw the horror in Sophie's eyes as she realised she was going on another car journey and put his arm around her comfortingly – not moving until they had pulled into the staff car-park at the ED. As they made their way into the building, Dylan gave his parting shot.

"Next time, leave the heroics to the paramedics. Humble receptionists belong at their desks!" And without another word, he swept off back to CDU.


	3. Diagnosis And Treatment

Chapter 3: Diagnosis And Treatment

Noel dropped into the chair beside Graham's bed in the hospital's intensive therapy unit (ITU). His friend had been knocked into a coma by his injuries and was now fighting for his life on a ventilator and all sorts of drugs. The receptionist looked at his motionless form sadly and heaved a deep sigh. How on earth was he going to break this to Sophie? She'd already asked the doctors and nurses treating her several times what had happened to her daddy and what was going to happen to her. Though the first question had been partially answered (Tom telling her that her daddy was having a sleep in another part of the hospital while he got better), the second part was still very uncertain. Noel glowered darkly at the snow outside the window which was causing the whole of the surrounding landscape to look innocently pretty and inviting and muttered, "how could you, and so close to Christmas!"

After a few minutes, he stood up, wandered sadly out of ITU and back down to the ED - finding big Mack helping Sophie build a house out of Lego bricks in the relatives room.

"Oh wow, is that my house you're building? Is Santa going to give that to me for Christmas?" he asked, trying to sound cheerful, though his old friend big Mack wasn't fooled.

"Santa never comes to my daddy's house," said Sophie sadly. This response caused Noel to forget to pretend. He just stood there and frowned at nothing in particular – apparently unable to say a word in case the little girl in front of him, already upset, might feel even worse.

"Why not, sweetheart?" asked Mack, giving her a model window for her to fit onto the wall of her house.

"I don't know. He doesn't like it. It makes him sad."

Noel found his eyes welling up as she continued, "we don't have a Christmas tree or crackers either. We had them at school though. On our last day we had singing and cakes as well. That was fun!"

Big Mack chanced a glance at his friend as he assisted Sophie to put the roof on the house. Noel's glum expression had changed. He had a faraway look in his eye that Mack knew only too well – he was plotting something.

"What are you thinking, mate?" the porter asked.

"I'll be back in a minute," Noel responded thoughtfully and left the relatives room.

Once back at his desk, he sat down heavily and stared at his computer screen for a minute or so – a plan forming in his mind. Then, lost in concentration, he began to type, look things up and print things out – leaving Louise to do several people's jobs at once. He was oblivious to her complaining, working intently until after about a quarter of an hour, he hastily closed the document he had been working on, filed his print-outs away neatly, picked up the file and walked casually away from the reception area.

He sought out Tom in cubicles and took him to one side. Once out of earshot of everyone, he produced the file labelled "Sophie Blake" and handed it to a puzzled-looking Dr Kent who opened it and studied the contents intently. Very slowly, a look of boyish excitement spread across the doctor's face as he handed the file back to an unmoving Noel.

"I think you've got the diagnosis spot on, Mr G," he said enthusiastically. "We'll have you treating patients for real soon!"

"Well, I'm hoping to be able to treat this one," replied the receptionist, "but I can't do it all on my own. Do you think the rest of the department might be able to give me a few pointers?"

"I'm sure we can all muck in," Tom said. "In fact, I know we will. I'll make sure of it. God knows I didn't want the poor little mite to be taken in by social services this close to Christmas. It wouldn't be fair on her to spend it with strangers – especially after what I've just read!"

Noel marched back into the relatives room a couple of minutes later where Sophie and Mack were admiring their handiwork. The porter's mouth dropped open as he saw his friend's sudden change of character.

"Wow, look at that!"

Noel was impressed. "I think we've got a new little architect on our hands here. What do you reckon, big Mack?"

Though she didn't know what the word 'architect' meant, Sophie chuckled.

"Now, trouble, I've got something to tell you. I've been having a word with some of my mates here in the hospital and we've organised it for you to have a special little holiday at my house until your dad's better. Would you like that?"

"Ooh, how about that?" asked big Mack animatedly, half to encourage Sophie but half to take the Mickey out of his friend. "Christmas with uncle Noel! That should be fun!"

Sophie appeared to think it over for a second, then said, "OK. Can we have chips for tea? They're my favourites!"

"Mine too!"

Noel scooped the 6-year-old up in his arms and marched out of the relatives room - singing Jingle Bells at the top of his voice, leaving Mack to clear up the Lego. As they passed the reception desk, Noel saw Charlie trying to attract his attention and made his way towards him.

"Take as much time off as you need," said the nurse generously. Noel could see he was holding a photocopy of one of his typed documents from a few moments ago. "It's not often you see someone prepared to do something as special and generous as you're doing. Tom's already been briefing us about your plans."

"What plans, uncle Noel?" asked Sophie.

"That's for me to know and you to find out, miss!"

"Who's that?" she asked, waving a hand vaguely in Charlie's direction.

"My name's Charlie."

"I'm Sophie. So there's uncle Noel, big Mack, Dr Tom, Dr Scary and Charlie."

"Who's Dr Scary?" Charlie was laughing.

"Dylan," said Noel who was also grinning. "That was my fault. I told her he had a scary voice when we found her in the car!"

"It's the old trick of putting names to voices," said Charlie. "Instead of remembering a face, she will remember a voice and put a name to it. It's a good rule."

"Maybe some of us would do well to remember that sometimes!""

Noel said this last sentence loudly as Dylan passed the group.

"What was that?" asked the doctor, clearly disinterested.

"Well you haven't called me by my proper name since about last Christmas! Only today I've had Ned, Norman, Neil … "

"I remember them when it matters," Dylan responded dismissively.

"It matters all the time to Sophie here," said Charlie. "What did you say you called him, sweetheart?"

"Dr Scary!"

Sophie went brick red and hid her face in Noel's jacket.

"I'm not scary!" exclaimed Dylan in a voice that sounded just that.

"Can we go and get our chips now uncle Noel?" asked Sophie timidly.

As the two of them walked away, Dylan looked at Charlie who was half glaring at him.

"I'm not scary … am I?"

"Guilty as charged," Charlie replied, holding out a sheet of paper to the grumpy-looking doctor who took it gingerly. Unnoticed, Charlie glanced at him as he read it and was gratified to see that Dr Keogh had the grace to look ashamed of himself. Finally, he folded the document into exact halves and pocketed it before looking directly at the nurse.

"Alright, what do I have to do?"

"Go and speak to Tom," said Charlie, "the whole department's involved in this one. Go on, 'op it!"


	4. The Tree Party

Chapter 4: The Tree Party

Noel felt apprehensive as he and Sophie arrived back at his house with the two holdalls that had been rescued by the recovery men from the crash site. It was true that he had seen a lot of her over the years, but he had never had her to stay at his house before. He had witnessed on numerous occasions how independent she was when it came to learning her way around by memory, but he had never had to be the one to teach her. He felt nervous as he led her down his hallway and into the living-room, though he tried to hide it.

However, he needn't have worried. Sophie's photographic memory proved an asset and by the end of the evening, she had more or less learned the entire layout of the house, though Noel did have to correct her when she was about to go into the airing cupboard to clean her teeth before bed.

The two large holdalls turned out to be full of Sophie's belongings. Finding a pair of teddy-bear pyjamas in one of them, he helped her change into them and tucked her into bed. Fishing around a second time, he pulled out a book which was full of fairy stories.

"Shall I read to you before you go to sleep, kiddo?" he asked.

"Like daddy does?"

"Yep!"

He flicked through the pages. "Let's see: 3 little pigs? Goldilocks and the 3 bears? Snow white and the 7 dwarves?"

Noel smiled to himself as 3 little pigs was chosen by mutual agreement. . It had been a very long time since he'd read any of these stories. He began to read aloud. When he reached the part where the big bad wolf was about to destroy the house of straw, he remembered something he enjoyed doing when he himself was young and stopped reading, said, "go on then!" and the two of them chorused, "I'll huff, and I'll puff, and I'll blow the house down!"

Finally, when she had fallen asleep, Noel turned the light out, tucked her teddy into the crook of her elbow and left the bedroom as quietly as he could. This was going to be one difficult mission, he thought, but he was determined to make it work. He just hoped it wouldn't come back to bite him at any point.

The fretful sound of a child crying woke him very suddenly the next morning. He rolled over and looked at his action figure clock beside his bed. 7:30. He scrambled out of bed and found his dressing gown crumpled up on the floor beside it, pulling it on as he walked quickly out of his own room and into the spare room which was now serving as Sophie's.

"Hey, what's all these tears for?" he asked quietly, sitting on the floor beside her bed. "You feeling a little bit homesick?"

"Yes."

"Well, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll get up and have some breakfast shall we? We've got a big exciting day today!"

It was an hour and a half later when bathed, dressed and breakfasted, Sophie and her new uncle left their house and made their way very carefully along the slippery pavement towards the high street. They hadn't gone far when a loud "ho ho ho!" behind them made them both jump.

"Big Mack! You frightened the life out of us!"

"Sorry mate," replied the porter in his deep, welsh voice. "I thought you could do with a hand. How are you today, Sophie?"

"Alright thank you, big Mack," she replied politely.

"I'm glad to hear it," he said cheerfully. "Would you like a ride on my shoulders? It's a bit slippery down there isn't it? It's alright," he added reassuringly to Noel who looked concerned, "I've got my snow boots on!"

"Can I, uncle Noel? Please? Pretty please?" asked Sophie.

"Go on then," he said, pretending to give in. "I'll lift you up!"

They spent a very enjoyable morning shopping for Christmas decorations of all shapes and sizes. Sophie was very taken with a hideous-looking electric Santa Claus which sang cheesy festive songs completely out of tune and ho-ho-hoing in the places where it forgot the words while apparently playing a plastic piano in front of it.

"You're not serious!"

Big Mack stared at the decoration with incredulity as Noel put it in the trolley. "It's got to be the ugliest Father Christmas I have ever seen!"

"Yup, it's also the noisiest," replied Noel. "That's all Sophie cares about! I think we can safely pass on this one though."

It was another Santa Claus - this time sitting on the back of a life-sized reindeer which was playing tunes.

"We need some tinsel," Noel said quickly, suddenly remembering.

"Right away, boss!"

Big Mack disappeared for a few minutes leaving Noel and Sophie waiting for him beside the reindeer. When he returned, Noel started laughing so hard he bent over and staggered sideways into a shelf of baubles which buckled, spilling its load all over the floor.

"You plonker! Here, kiddo, go and have a feel of what big Mack's done!"

Big Mack had taken what looked like half the store's supply of tinsel, unravelled it from its hooks and twisted it around his arms, legs and torso - making him look as though he was wearing an all-in-one made from the stuff. The different colours clashed horribly and he was causing several shoppers either to laugh themselves hoarse or to run off in the opposite direction scared for their lives.

"That's cool!"

Sophie had thoroughly examined his new outfit. "I want one!"

"I don't see why not," said big Mack and began to guide her through the mess of baubles towards the rest of the tinsel.

"No! We'll get thrown out of here if we're not careful," began Noel, but the two of them had by now walked out of earshot leaving him to tidy up the mess. When they returned, Sophie also done up in a tinsel all-in-one, he took out his phone and snapped a few photographs of the pair of them before helping Sophie out of her tinsel and putting it in the trolley. Big Mack was left to struggle out of his own outfit.

They ate lunch in the hospital canteen which gave them the opportunity to ask how Graham was. Learning that there was no change, they made their way back home and began to unpack the shopping.

At about half past 3, the two of them were sitting on the sofa in front of a DVD of Cinderella which Noel had found in one of the holdalls when the front doorbell rang. He went to answer it – only to be met by a face full of prickly, needle-laden branches that completely blocked the doorway.

"Has he opened it yet?" asked a muffled male voice from the other side of the jungle.

"I think so," came a female voice.

"Tom, Sam, is that you two?" asked Noel taking a step backwards so they could manoeuvre themselves around the Christmas forest they'd brought with them. It was only by dragging the enormous tree out of the way that they were able to squeeze into the hall.

"You know," said a disgruntled Tom pulling pine needles out of his jumper, "I think we overestimated the size of the front door."

"We'll find a way to get it in," said Sam who was also extracting needles from her clothing. "Well, at least, you two will. Little Sophie and I have got an important date at the supermarket."

"If we do that, you'll have needles all over the floor and the branches will be bald!"

"Well alright then smart Alec, why don't you think of a better suggestion?"

"I did! You dismissed it out of hand because you said it would make the tree look stupid!"

Sam and Sophie heard the two men arguing as they waded through the snow pulling a shopping trolley between them towards Noel's front door which was still hidden by the enormous Christmas tree.

"Haven't you got that indoors yet?" she asked.

"I'd say that was bloody obvious," muttered Noel who was clearly beginning to get a bit frustrated by the whole thing.

"Well can we at least get inside? It's a bit nippy out here!"

"You'll have to go round the back," replied Tom. "Right, come on, Noel. Let's have a serious think about this. If cutting it in half is going to make it look stupid, have you any other suggestions?"

"I don't believe this!"

Zoe came staggering up Noel's front path and joined the party outside the front door.

"I heard there was a decorating party going on here this afternoon but I didn't expect it to take place in the front doorway!"

"Have you got any ideas about how we can get the thing in the house?" asked Tom.

"Sure," she replied confidently. "Got some scissors?"

Sam guided Sophie around to the back door and into the kitchen. Telling her to stand still and look after the shopping trolley, she retrieved the large pair of scissors from one of the drawers and handed them through the jungle to a laughing Zoe who began to hack away at the ends of some of the bushier branches.

"What on earth's going on here?"

Charlie was the next to join the fast-growing crowd outside the front door and watched in amazement as Zoe continued to snip away at the Christmas tree, though not spoiling its shape one bit. Sam had disappeared back inside the house where she proceeded to put the kettle on and show Sophie how to help her lay out the nibbles for the evening's decorating party. When they returned to the front door, they saw that Lloyd and Linda, two of the ED's nurses had also arrived and were admiring Zoe's handiwork. Finally, she handed the scissors back to Tom and said, her teeth chattering, "try now. I'm getting a coffee!"

"Coffee?" came Sam's incredulous voice from the hall. "There's mulled wine in the kitchen if anyone wants it!"

She put on the CD of cheesy Christmas hits that she and Sophie had purchased at the supermarket and the "tree party" got well underway. Everyone was having a brilliant time putting up the various decorations, dancing to the festive tunes and Noel even dressed his little charge up in another tinsel outfit after ttalking about the photographs of their earlier antics in the shop had encouraged her to ask him to do it again. It was Lloyd who started the cracker-pulling. There were a couple of intensive minutes of bangs, dreadful jokes and paper hats.

All in all, it was a brilliant day. Some of the adults stayed on for a few drinks after Noel had tucked an exhausted Sophie into bed. The house had been completely transformed. There were fairy lights around the windows, tinsel around the door frames and the tree hung with decorations of all shapes, sizes, colours and textures. The house had a Christmassy smell to it with the remains of the mulled wine, mince pies and other festive junk food and Noel was in his element. He was only just beginning to realise what he'd been missing all these years.


	5. Snowballs And Curtain Calls

Chapter 5: Snowballs And Curtain Calls

The city awoke the next morning to a fresh fall of snow. It was fortunate that this one had been anticipated and the gritting lorries had been at work during the night in preparation for it. This made no difference to the side street in which Noel lived, however, which remained untouched by the lorries and was therefore completely obscured by the snowfall.

"What are we going to do today, uncle Noel?" asked Sophie as they tucked into their morning porridge.

"Well, we've got the pantomime this afternoon," he said, "but I don't know about this morning. Maybe we could go into town and find a present for your daddy when he wakes up. We'll see how deep the snow is on the main road first though."

A while later, they were about to put their coats and gloves on in preparation for going outside when the doorbell rang unexpectedly. Noel was slightly surprised when he answered it to find a snow-covered Dylan standing outside – clutching his equally snow-covered dog, Dervla on a leash beside him.

"What are you doing here?" asked the receptionist in disbelief. Unsure of what to say, Dylan did his favourite trick of stumbling and fluffing his words as he said, "well, the thing is, I'm taking Dervla for her walk in the park this morning and I wondered if … well I thought it would be nice if … why don't you both come with me? We can … er … make a snowman or something."

Sophie overheard and made her way gingerly to the front door.

"Well, it's really nice of you," replied a stunned Noel. "What do you reckon, kiddo?"

"Yay!"

"I think that's a yes. Alright, we'll be with you in a second. Why don't you come in while we get ready?"

Dylan shook his head.

"We'll wait here."

The snow was thicker than ever on the playing field. Once Dylan had closed the gate behind them all, he let Dervla off the leash. The dog stood there unsure of what to make of this cold white stuff. Dylan bent down and hastily made a snowball which he threw as hard as he could. The dog tore after it, then sat down on the ground and devoured it in one icy crunch.

"You're not supposed to do that," he said as she came back for more. He inwardly braced himself as he remembered what Charlie had said to him about sounding scary. After a moment, he took a deep breath.

"Sophie, would you like a go?"

"What do I have to do?" she asked.

Dylan looked beseechingly at Noel who shook his head and said, "No, Dr Keogh. She asked you to show her."

"Alright," he said awkwardly, then sighed. If he was going to do this at all, he was going to do it properly. He crouched down stiffly in the snow beside her.

"Put both hands in the snow and get two big handfuls."

She did so.

"That's it," replied Dylan briskly, "now squeeze the snow together into a big ball. Squeeze it nice and tight."

"Like this?"

She'd sort of got the idea, but the handfuls hadn't been compacted tightly enough and they'd broken apart. Dylan had to show her all over again.

Finally, when she'd mastered the art of making a snowball, Sophie stood up. Noel turned her in the right direction and Dylan told the dog to wait before doing something surprising and lifting Sophie up so she was as tall as the adults. Noel stared at him with tactless incredulity.

"When I count to 3," he said a little less awkwardly, "I want you to throw that ball as far as you can, alright? On my count. 1, 2, 3 … "

At the last possible moment, Dylan's foot slipped on the icy ground and he had to twist his body slightly to keep himself and Sophie upright so that instead of throwing the ball for Dervla to fetch, she threw it straight in an unsuspecting Noel's face! The receptionist coughed and spluttered, rubbing the snow out of his eyes. Sophie seemed to realise what she'd done and was laughing so hard she had tears running down her face and Dylan was now staring at Noel in horrified disbelief! Lowering Sophie to the ground, he looked down at Dervla almost apologetically as Noel quickly whispered something to her as she made her second snowball and lifted her up himself saying audibly, "I don't know! Let's see if we can make a better job of it, shall we? This time, Dylan realised what was about to happen and jogged away, the other 3 chasing him. After a few seconds, Noel yelled, "Now!" and Sophie lobbed her snowball (which was now beginning to turn sloppy) striking Dr Keogh with a wet smack on the side of the head.

For the next few minutes, the 3 of them chased each other around chucking snowballs into the air and at each other – Dervla adding to the excitement by kicking up great mounds of snow as she chased after the balls that were thrown for her. Realising that he'd been helplessly sucked into the pastime of having fun, Dylan threw caution to the wind and let things take their course. Sophie took it in turns to partner one of the adults and make snowballs while the other adult jogged out of the line of fire – Noel singing "10 green bottles" at the top of his voice and Dylan whistling loudly so Sophie could here in which direction he'd gone and could feel she was making herself useful by pointing and shouting, "that way! He went that way!"

All four of them were freezing and absolutely soaked an hour later when they left the park, but every single one of them had had the time of their lives. An enormous snowman now stood in the centre of the field and everyone was dripping and shivering from the earlier snowball fight.

When they returned to Noel's house, he invited Dylan and Dervla inside for a few minutes to dry off and this time, the doctor accepted gratefully. When Noel and Sophie had changed and hot drinks had been made, Noel fetched the one remaining cracker from the box from the day before and gave it to Sophie.

"Dylan," she said shyly, "I wanted to pull this with you at the tree party but you weren't there, so I saved it for you."

Dylan stared at it awkwardly before replying, "no, it's OK. I'm sure Noel would rather pull it with you."

Noel shook his head. "She insisted. That one's yours," he said and Dylan sighed. He hadn't pulled one of these since he was a kid!

"That's my coffees for the month of February as well, Nick. OK. Ready?" he asked and they tugged. A tacky, plastic whistle and a paper hat slid out of Dylan's half of the cracker and came to rest on the floor. He handed them to Sophie who gave a tentative blow on the whistle before sliding it into her pocket.

"This is the best Christmas ever!" she said enthusiastically as Noel helped her put the colourful paper hat on her head.

"It hasn't even started yet," he reassured her, "we've got the panto after lunch."

They were just about to get ready for lunch when the call came. It was Louise.

"Noel, I'm really sorry to have to do this to you but could you come and cover me for an hour? I've got to go and have an emergency filling in one of my back teeth and this was the only time they could fit me in."

"I can't. I've booked the week off with Charlie!"

"I'm really sorry," said Louise and Noel noticed that she sounded pretty desperate. "I won't be long, I promise."

Noel put down the receiver and sighed.

"Bugger," he said and explained the situation to the other two. "We were going to go to Macdonald's for lunch as well! Oh well, I suppose it'll have to be the hospital canteen and hanging around in Charlie's office until I've finished, kiddo."

Sophie's face fell. The two adults noticed it. Dylan saw the guilty look on his colleague's face as he struggled with his thoughts for a moment, then sighed.

"You know, I'm quite partial to the odd Macdonald's. I'll take her for a bit of lunch and you can meet us there when you've finished."

Noel stared at him again as though he were some kind of bizarre circus act.

"Really?"

"I'm not completely devoid of a caring side, you know."

"So I'm beginning to see. Right, Sophie. You be good for Dylan, I'll be back with you before it's panto o'clock, OK?"

Noel walked into the ED and sat down heavily behind the reception desk. Tess walked up to him with a sheet of paper.

"Can you check this list and make sure it looks OK?" she asked. It's for the secret Santa we're arranging for the day after tomorrow. Can you make sure no-one's been left off it and make any alterations if necessary?"

He scanned obediently down the list and an enormous smile crept across his face as he saw what wonderful people worked with him in this department.

When he finally caught up with Dylan and Sophie outside Macdonald's, Dylan gave her a fleeting hug and said goodbye – assuring Noel that she'd been as good as gold.

"Aren't you coming to the panto with us?" she asked sadly.

"I'm afraid I can't," he said stiffly, "I've got to get ready for work. I'll see you in a day or two though. Perhaps we can go to the park again."

"We'd like that, wouldn't we," said Noel and Sophie agreed. As they turned to go, Dylan gave Noel one last surprise by remembering his name as he said goodbye. Noel, in turn, was gratified to see a smile flit across the doctor's face as he heard Sophie say as they walked away, "I don't think he's Dr Scary anymore. He's Dr Snowball!"

The pantomime was fantastic. The story was one well known to them both, jack and the beanstalk. Sophie knew exactly when the giant was supposed to speak and when the beanstalk was to be cut down. They both joined in shouting with the rest of the audience in the right places and Noel managed to catch a handful of sweets when the giant's wife threw silver and gold wrapped chocolate coins into the audience. After Sophie had eaten her share, she put the wrappers into her pocket along with the whistle from the cracker and a small piece of tinsel she'd pulled out of her hair at yesterday's tree decorating party. The show ended with a rousing chorus of "we wish you a merry Christmas". Noel was as enthusiastic as his adopted niece as he joined in and the evening ended with a couple of curtain calls and a huge round of applause from everyone.

It was half past 6 when they arrived home and he rustled them up a light supper of scrambled eggs on toast, which he thought wouldn't lay so heavily on the stomach as it was later than usual. As he tucked her into bed an hour and a half later, she put her arms around him and gave him an enormous hug.

"I'm having a lovely holiday with you, uncle Noel," she said. "Do you think daddy will be cross with me when he wakes up?"

"No, I don't think he will, sweetheart," replied Noel seriously. "What makes you think he might be cross with you?"

"He's always sad at Christmas time. He might not like it if I'm having a nice holiday."

"Sophie, I think your daddy will be very happy," said Noel and he hoped with all his heart that this was the case.

"Are you happy, uncle Noel?"

"I'm very happy," he assured her. "Now, close your eyes. It's two more sleeps to Christmas day!"


	6. Twas The Day Before Christmas

Chapter 6: 'Twas the day before Christmas

Noel was singing along with the radio as he prepared boiled eggs and soldiers for breakfast on the morning of Christmas eve, causing Sophie to jump out of bed and make her way into the living room.

"Is it today? Is Santa Claus coming today?"

"Well, tonight," he said, "when you're fast asleep. That's when he comes down the chimneys and gives presents to all the little boys and girls - especially if they've been good!"

"I'm going to be really really good today," she promised as she sipped at her cocoa. "I want Santa to remember me this year."

"He will," Noel said. "I wrote him a special letter telling him where you were having our little holiday and he said he would make sure he visited you as long as you're good!"

This last part of course was a fib. However, he was delighted to observe that his adopted niece seemed to have swallowed it along with the boiled egg she was now tucking into.

"Where are we going today?" she asked a few minutes later as Noel was clearing the breakfast things.

"Well, I've got to go and get a little bit more shopping," he said. "You're going shopping as well to get a present for your daddy. I'm not going to take you though. Zoe is."

"But I want you to take me!"

"Come on," said Noel encouragingly, "it's only for an hour or two."

"No!"

She stamped her small foot.

"Now Sophie, stop it! How am I going to get everything ready for Santa if you won't help me?"

The festive atmosphere had disappeared from the house that morning as Sophie developed a rebellious, defiant attitude – refusing to wash or clean her teeth, then throwing herself face-down on her bed and sulking – refusing to speak to Noel until he said sternly, "if you don't stop this nonsense at once, I'm not going to take you to see Santa in the park this evening!"

It came as something of a relief to the receptionist when Sophie sulkily pulled on her coat and wellies as Zoe knocked at the door.

"Hi ya Kid," she said as she stepped into Noel's cosy hallway, "you ready to go Christmas shopping?"

"I suppose so," came the grumpy response.

The shopping trip wasn't very enjoyable. True, they managed to find a football calendar, a set of handkerchiefs and a chocolate snowman with the word "daddy" printed on it for Graham and a set of new action figures and a chocolate reindeer with the words "uncle Noel" printed on it for Noel, but Sophie maintained a sulky expression throughout the trip and refused to eat her lunch - causing Zoe to tell her off when she threw her sandwich down on her plate and said it was stupid!

Realising that the little girl must be missing her dad, Zoe lifted her up and carried her out of the sandwich shop and into a card shop – choosing a brightly-coloured, teddy-bear, snowman and Santa-covered Christmas card and writing a message for Graham before reading it out to Sophie and sealing it in its envelope.

After they had delivered the card on to Graham's bedside locker, Zoe carried her out of ITU and back into the ED. As they made their way through the doors to the admin area, Sam came running up to them.

"Dr Hanna, thank god you're here. There's a resus case coming in and we could really do with your expertise on this one."

"I can't! I'm babysitting for Noel."

"Put her on the seats by reception and I'll get someone to come and grab her in a second," said Sam urgently. "Please, Zoe. I really could do with your help! Louise will keep an eye on her."

It was 20 minutes later when Tom walked into the ED after his lunch break and found the little figure sitting on the seat by Louise's desk, holding the handles of a shopping bag in one hand and bawling her eyes out. He ran over and dropped into the seat next to her.

"Hey, it's me, Tom. What's happened?"

"Uncle Noel's gone shopping and Zoe had to work so she told me to stay here."

"That was 20 minutes ago," Louise elaborated, stepping away briefly from her desk.

"Right, have you had anything to eat?" he asked.

"It was a sandwich. I didn't like it!"

"Well we can't have that, can we? Let me take this."

He tugged the shopping-bag handles out of Sophie's grip and stood up, taking her hand. "We'll go and find something. Louise, tell Dr Hanna I'm taking an extended lunch break. Perhaps you could phone Noel and tell him what's happened for me."

Christmas spirit was definitely thin on the ground by the time Zoe joined Tom who had somehow persuaded Sophie to tuck into a jacket potato with cheese and baked beans.

"You should be back in CDU. I'll take over here until Noel gets back," she said sitting down at the table between them.

"No, you shouldn't have neglected your duties! Perhaps you should go back to CDU and leave us both to it! I am the paediatric specialist after all."

"Are you suggesting I should leave my resus case to die while I play at Paediatrics?" Zoe shot back at him.

"Well you could always take some tips from Dr Keogh," Tom snapped back. "I've heard whispers that he was chucking snowballs in the park yesterday. Maybe you'd do better if you had a go? Hang on," he added, taking Sophie's fork and pushing an escaping piece of potato back on to her plate, "that potato was about to grow legs!"

"I think I'll stick to resus," Zoe retorted and flounced off.

"Everybody's cross with me today," said Sophie sadly. "I want to be good so Santa will come and visit me when I go to sleep but I'm making everyone cross!"

Tom didn't know what to say. He partially blamed himself for having a go at Zoe. He contented himself with rescuing another piece of escaping potato and saying reassuringly, "I'm not cross with you and I'm sure uncle Noel isn't either."

It was unfortunate that Louise had neglected to explain to Noel the reason that his little charge had ended up in the department, causing him to crash through the doors in panic 15 minutes later laden with shopping.

"What the hell's going on? Where is she? Where is she!"

The outburst not only startled Louise but stunned Dixie, Jeff, Sam and Zoe who were all standing nearby.

"She's fine. Dr Kent's taken her to the canteen for some lunch," Louise replied, staring at her frantically worried colleague.

"Lunch? It's half past bloody 2! She should have had lunch 2 hours ago!"

"I tried to give her a sandwich but she didn't want to know," Zoe tried to explain. Noel rounded on her.

"And did you actually check to see whether she liked it? She is 6 years old! This time of year, little kids need a hot lunch. Isn't that right, Dr Keogh?"

A puzzled Dylan had joined the group.

"Well yes, ideally, but if she didn't want it, she didn't want it."

"Ooh, check out our new paediatric expert! He throws a few snowballs and he knows it all!"

It was everyone's turn to stare incredulously at Zoe now as she made this little speech. Noel shouted over the top of her.

"And more to the point, how come she ended up with Dr Kent? You were supposed to be looking after her today."

"Well, she didn't," replied Louise. It was evident to everyone present that the other receptionist was bent on stirring up the situation as much as she could.

"Dr Hanna brought Sophie into the department, plonked her down on the seats by reception and went off to resus. Tom found her after 20 minutes."

Noel glared at Zoe as she defended herself – Sam talking over her. Within seconds, everyone in the group was shouting at each other, arguing with each other and talking over each other. Noel was shouting at Zoe just how irresponsible she was, Zoe and Sam were trying to explain the situation, Dixie was screaming all sorts of swear words at Louise who was screaming back at her and Jeff was trying to tell everyone to calm down but ending up shouting just as loud as the others in his efforts to break up the argument. Dylan was throwing dirty looks from one to the other but seemed unable or unwilling to speak. Indeed, he was the only one to notice the arrival of Tom and Sophie who stopped short of the brawling group – Tom looking apprehensive.

It was Charlie who saved the situation as he ran in and saw the chaos unfolding as Louise picked up a heavy file and brandished it at Dixie. He said something inaudible to Dylan above the noise and the doctor scooped a surprised Sophie into his arms before the two of them marched forward boldly into the group, singing a rousing (if somewhat untuneful)chorus of "Santa Claus Is Coming To Town!" Tom, who was standing closest, cottoned on and joined in, as did Big Mack who was walking past pushing a heavy trolley. Slowly, the arguing was replaced by singing and Dylan was eventually able to squeeze between the bodies and reunite Sophie with her adopted uncle Noel.

When the singing had died away, Dylan turned to face the group.

"I hope for all your sakes you were arguing over what Christmas presents to buy your unfortunate relations. I've never seen anything like it. You should all be bloody ashamed of yourselves. Niall, take Sophie home for a rest. She's going to need one if you're going to the twilight carols."

The group disbursed sheepishly.

"Well done," said Tom discreetly to Dylan and made to walk away when a little voice spoke up behind him.

"Thank you for my jacket potato," it said. "Happy Christmas."

The twilight carols was held in the playing field where the remains of the snowman still stood, though looking much less impressive than he had yesterday. A local brass band had been hired to play a wide selection of traditional carols with which the residents of Holby were encouraged to join in. A tent at one end of the field supplied the residents with light nibbles plus tea, coffee, cocoa, mulled wine and a selection of cold drinks and at the other end, a large sleigh stood with Santa sitting in pride of place ready to distribute the large pile of small boxes behind him. Two horses made up to look like reindeer were harnessed to the front of the vehicle for a more realistic effect.

Noel fetched Sophie a cup of cocoa and a glass of wine for himself, Fletch and Tess who had come along for moral support. An exhausted but excited-looking Sophie stood holding tightly to Noel's hand. She hadn't wanted to go home for a rest after the eventful afternoon at the hospital … there had been one or two more presents she had forgotten to buy and she had insisted on dragging the unhappy Noel out shopping once more.

As the carol singing got underway, a few more people from the department floated in as their shifts ended- Lloyd, Linda, Charlie, Dixie and Jeff. Fletch took video after video on his mobile phone with the promise of making a DVD when Christmas was over and the smile on Sophie's face at the receipt of her new teddy from Santa was the highlight of the evening.

When the carol singing was over, the group made their way towards the gate in order to go home when the sound of running feet stopped them in their tracks as Lloyd (who no-one had noticed disappearing) came running up to them.

"You'll never guess what Zoe's done," he said enthusiastically. Everyone looked at him expectantly.

"Apparently, she's friends with that Father Christmas. She got in contact with him earlier on and told him what's been going on here this week and he wants to give us a ride back to the hospital car-park!"

"Mr Blake, can you hear me?"

Graham heard the nurse talking as though from a dream. He reached up and rubbed his eyes. He was lying in a warm, comfortable bed, though surrounded by several different types of machinery, to some of which he was connected by wires and tubes. His head was excruciatingly painful as were his ribs as he tried to breathe.

Very slowly, he took in his surroundings before realising where he must be. He looked at the nurse.

"Have I been asleep long?" he asked weakly.

"about 3 days," she replied checking his pulse. "You were in a car accident. Do you remember?"

"Yes."

With all his effort, Graham strained his memory back to the car journey and the resorting collision. Then he gasped and turned white, his heart rate monitor increasing alarmingly.

"My daughter Sophie was with me. Where is she? What's happened to her? Is she OK?"

"From what I can gather," said the nurse cheerfully, "she's very much OK. From the gossip I've picked up from my friends down in Casualty, she's being absolutely spoiled rotten by every single one of them!"

The nurse registered a look of deep sadness on her patient's face as she straightened out his pillows, though she didn't press him for the cause. It was he who volunteered the information.

"My wife died a week before Sophie's first Christmas," he said sadly. "She was getting some shopping and her car slid on a patch of black ice. I've never been able to enjoy Christmas since. I thought that since Sophie couldn't see the difference anyway, she wouldn't be missing out on the fact that we didn't have decorations up or have presents. Then she started school in September and they were getting ready for their class party. All her little friends were talking about Santa and presents and god knows what else and she started asking me questions. I thought perhaps if we could get away from my old house, my old memories, maybe I might be able to do it for her. I packed up our stuff in two holdalls and a suitcase and started driving and driving. That's when we ran into Noel walking back from town. Well, the rest you know," he concluded tearfully.

The nurse looked at him pityingly.

"Well, if you're feeling well enough, your daughter can come in to see you tomorrow and tell you all about what she's been up to. What the … " she added as a strange sound met her ears from the car-park below. Crossing to the window, she slid it open. The sound of clopping hooves and sleigh bells floated up to the ward along with what sounded like several voices singing "O come all ye faithful". Sitting at the front of the sleigh sat Santa Claus, driving what looked like two enormous reindeer into the centre of the car-park before bringing the vehicle to a halt. The crowd of passengers stood up, still singing. On one of the passengers' shoulders sat a small, curly-haired figure in a red winter coat, scarf, gloves and sturdy little wellington boots. Graham, who had a good view of the window from his bed, saw his daughter sitting on the shoulders of the person whose face he couldn't see and smiled. As the minutes passed, more of the hospital staff trooped out into the car-park and boarded the sleigh so that the singing grew louder and louder as they finished "O Come All Ye Faithful" and moved on to "Ding Dong Merrily On High", "Good King Wenceslas**", "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" and a lively chorus of "Jingle Bells". Graham lay where he was, transfixed at the unfolding scene outside - **refusing to let the nurse close the window until the passengers disembarked from the sleigh 15 minutes later and disbursed, leaving Santa to give an inaudible command to his reindeer and move off into the darkness with a cheery, "Ho ho ho! Merry Christmas to one and all!"

Noel gently tucked the teddy in beside the semi-sleeping Sophie and turned quietly to leave the bedroom.

"Uncle Noel?"

He turned back and dropped to his knees beside the bed.

"Can you read me a story?"

"You're half asleep, miss! You won't stay awake long enough for me to go and find your book! I'll tell you a special story that my dad used to tell me on Christmas eve. Would you like that?"

"Yes please," she replied sleepily. Noel wracked his brains for a moment – trying to remember the words, then cleared his throat and began:

"Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."

As he continued, he saw the little girl's eyelids gradually drooping so that by the time he finally whispered, ""Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night!" she was sound asleep. Gently straightening her bed sheets, Noel stood up and whispered, "happy Christmas, kiddo," before heading silently out of the room.


	7. A Feast Of Surprises With Cranbury Sauce

Chapter 7: A Feast Of Surprises With Cranbury Sauce

The crash woke Sophie the next morning as she rolled over and kicked out with her feet – causing something to fall off the end of the bed with a loud thud. As she rubbed her eyes, she explored the bed more gently with her feet and discovered something quite large that crinkled as she kicked it. She sat up, leaned forward and felt for the object which turned out to be a large present. She got out of bed and picked it up, kicking a second present as she felt her way to the end of the bed where Noel kept her slippers. Both parcels clutched in her arms, she made her way gingerly (unable to feel her way) out into the hallway and stopped to listen. Hearing movement coming from Noel's room, she crept to the door. She retreated a little way when she heard his voice from the other side of the door.

"I can here you, I can here you!"

A second later, the door crashed open and Noel ran towards her.

"What did Santa Claus bring you then?" he asked enthusiastically, "unwrap them. Go on! I'd do that big one first."

Beaming, Sophie fumbled in her excitement to pull the paper off the parcel – finally revealing an enormous plastic box which she found to contain Lego bricks. Though she didn't know it, this offering came from big Mack who had gone away for Christmas and wasn't going to be around to witness the festivities.

"Wow, I love Lego!"

Noel was delighted. Her second parcel (Dylan's contribution) contained a set of art and craft materials such as paper with different textures, tubes of glue, pieces of fabric, stick-on shapes and all manner of other things.

"Wow," enthused Noel, "clever Santa Claus! We can use this to make your daddy a special card tomorrow if you like."

Sophie hugged him.

When they had eaten their breakfast, Noel put Sam's CD of Christmas tunes on and handed her two more presents saying, "these ones are from uncle Noel."

The first one was a CD of the wind in the willows. Noel saw Sophie's eyes widen as he told her all about Mr Toad, Mr Rat and all the other animals. "We can listen to it this evening if you like," he said. "Go on, open that other one. I promise you'll have hours of fun with it!"

It was a "Boppit" game. Noel was absolutely right. It was good fun showing her how to activate the different controls and they spent an enjoyable and prolonged period of time challenging each other to competitions, the one who could keep the game going the longest receiving a chocolate tree decoration as their prize.

They then built a house out of the Lego bricks – much bigger and better than the one Sophie had built with big Mack 4 days ago in the relatives room – only abandoning it when the telephone in the hall began to ring earnestly. By the time a beaming Noel had returned, Sophie had completed the job and handed it to her adopted uncle with pride.

"You asked if Santa would give you a house for Christmas," she said, evidently remembering something he had said a few days ago. "Well, here you are!"

Noel was taken completely by surprise.

About an hour later, the doorbell rang. It was Dixie.

"Ready to party?" she asked and both of them replied with an enthusiastic "yes!"

Charlie and Zoe met them at Dixie and Jeff's where they were to have a Christmas lunch of turkey and all the trimmings. Sophie received a new pair of slippers with feely fluffy bunnies on them from Zoe, two Barbie dolls with several changes of clothes from Dixie and Jeff and a big box of chocolate coins from Charlie. Needless to say, Noel was videoing every exciting event of the day in order to send it to Fletch for his DVD.

At about 1:30, they sat down to lunch. Someone had invested in an enormous box of crackers and had laid some of them out around the table.

"I know," said Jeff suddenly, "let's make a chain with the crackers. Sophie, you pull yours with uncle Noel, then Noel pulls his with Zoe, she pulls hers with Charlie and we go round the table like that!"

The first half of the cracker chain went off without a hitch. However, as Zoe and Charlie's cracker came apart with a loud bang, a small, bouncy rubber ball flew out of it and landed with a delightful plop straight into the open jar of Cranbury sauce that Jeff was trying to serve up. For such a small object, the ball successfully caused the sauce to splash all over the table (not to mention all over Jeff), leaving a sweet, sticky mess behind it.

"Nice one Jeffrey," Dixie said cheerfully. "Honestly, you can't take these men anywhere can you?"

Noel gave a mischievous grin, lifted his little video camera and said to an infuriated Jeff, "guess what? You've been framed!"

Everyone roared with hysterical laughter and lunch began in earnest.

At about 3, there was a loud knock on the Collier's front door and Sam entered, closely followed by Tom and Tess. Their gifts to Sophie were a toy doctors and nurses kit from Tom, a warm, fluffy pink dressing gown from Sam and more Lego from Tess. On Lloyd's arrival about half an hour later, she received some modelling clay with some little tools with which to make different shapes. Linda popped in for a couple of minutes to give her an animal jigsaw puzzle.

"All the different animals are different textures," she explained to Noel. "That way, she can feel which piece goes where. It took me ages to find!"

Sophie began to hand out her presents which consisted mostly of chocolate. Noel was delighted with his new action figures and Zoe with her personalised chocolate Christmas tree.

"That's because I remember you cutting our Christmas tree so it could fit in the house," the little girl explained and Zoe laughed.

"So you going to take up tree dressing for a living instead of medicine, Princess?" asked Jeff and was rewarded by a wet dish cloth flung at him by Dixie.

A short while later, everyone had settled down for a rest in front of the telly after their enormous lunch when a commotion outside caused them all to jump and Jeff to exclaim, "flippin' 'eck!"

An engine was revving loudly in the street outside and every few seconds, a horn hooted.

"What on earth's going on?" asked Dixie, coming into the living-room holding a dish cloth, Sam following her holding a tea towel and the large carving knife she'd been drying. The horn hooted again.

"Can we go and see?" asked Sophie.

"I think that's a brilliant idea," said Jeff sarcastically, "it could be anyone out there."

"Oh I don't think so," said Sam who had noticed the vehicle which was causing such a disturbance, "I'm very familiar with that 4 by 4!"

A minute or two later, Noel, Sophie and Charlie crunched across the ground towards Dylan's land rover – Sam and Zoe right behind them. He hooted at them once more and wound his window down as Charlie was first to stop beside the vehicle.

"What you doing?" he asked, "why didn't you do what normal people do and come and knock on the front door?"

"You know how much I love parties," Dylan said dismissively. "Besides, it's freezing out there. Well are you 3 getting in or aren't you? I've been instructed to take you on what I believe they call a magical mystery tour! Sam, I know we've had our problems in the past but you might want to put that knife down. It is supposed to be Christmas, after all!"

The 3 of them were delighted to scramble into the land rover and slam the doors on the freezing air outside. Noel saw the others come out of the house and wave enthusiastically as they drove away, then retreat back into the warm once more. Dylan drove silently, refusing to answer any of the questions the others threw at him regarding where they were going, then as the adults cottoned on, why they were being taken there. Only when he pulled up in the staff car-park of the hospital did he speak.

"Right. I'll wait here for you. Noel, take her up to ITU. Charlie, do what you like. Just bare in mind that if you get out of this vehicle, you will get cold!"

The lift doors opened outside the intensive care unit and Noel guided Sophie out and along the corridor. As they stopped to hold their hands under a disinfectant spray, a nurse ran up to them.

"Ah, just in time," she said and gestured towards a doorway. Noel took Sophie's hand and began to lead her over to the doorway but stopped short just outside it.

"Take this," he whispered, giving her a bag. "You'll need it when we get inside."

Slowly, Noel opened the door and they walked quietly into the room where still hooked up to machines but wide awake lay Graham who gave a cry of joy!

"My baby!"

Noel lifted Sophie in his arms and walked her across to her father, sitting her on the bed at his side then standing back, not wishing to be a part of this reunion. This was father and daughter time. With his free arm, Graham pulled his daughter into a tight hug and cried, "I'm so happy to see you!"

She gave him a kiss.

"Did you have a nice sleep?" she asked innocently.

"Well, it was a long sleep," he said tearfully. "I got your Christmas card. It was lovely."

"Why are you crying?" asked Sophie who looked sad.

"I'm crying because I've been a really silly daddy!"

He looked across at Noel who met his eye, then elaborated. "I've been a really silly daddy because I've slept so long and missed Christmas with you."

"No you haven't," said Noel stepping forward again. "What's in the bag, kiddo?"

Sophie put her hand into the bag and drew out a parcel. Graham took it. She laid the other two presents on the bed beside him.

When Graham's parcels had been arranged on his locker along with the card, he gave his daughter another hug and said, "I'm really sorry. I know I haven't had much fun with you at Christmas before."

Sophie smiled at him. "That's alright," she said, "I had loads of fun this time. First we went and got loads of stuff to put on the walls and the Christmas tree and big Mack dressed me up in that swishy stuff." She dug in her coat pocket and pulled out the small scrap of tinsel she'd kept from the tree party. Graham looked at it. Sophie then went on to explain how the tree wouldn't fit; how Zoe had to cut it with scissors to get it through the front door while she helped Sam make the food for the decorating party. She then showed him her selection of offerings from Christmas crackers. Then she told him about the snowball fight in the park and the panto, showing her father the chocolate coin wrappers from the sweets Noel had rescued for her. Then she told how she'd gone shopping with Zoe yesterday and hadn't enjoyed it. But she ate a whole jacket potato in the canteen with Tom and then gone to buy presents for her new friends before going to sing carols. The little teddy she'd received from Santa was still lying on her pillow at Noel's house, but she promised him she would show it to daddy as soon as she could, along with the enormous pile of other presents she'd been given today. Both Graham and Noel were taken by surprise when Sophie concluded enthusiastically, "I know! Next year, I'll show you how to do Christmas like at uncle Noel's house! Would you like that, daddy?"

Graham and Noel exchanged a brief glance, then Graham replied, "I'd like that very much."

"I love you," said Sophie happily and Graham hugged her whispering as he did so, "I love you too."

After about 15 minutes, Graham told Sophie to get down and said, "Noel, can I talk to you by yourself for a few minutes?"

"Sure," the other replied, "I know, I've got a good idea."

He used the phone in Graham's room, pressed 9 for an outside line, whispered something to Sophie and dialled a number, holding the receiver to her ear.

Dylan was half asleep in the warmth of his 4 by 4 when his mobile phone began to ring and buzz loudly on the dash board. He answered it and was greeted by a small voice.

"Hello, it's Sophie. I've got a present for you. Can you come and get it?"

He chuckled, taking Charlie completely unawares.

"Alright," he said, "I'll be two minutes. You do realise you're making me get out of this nice warm car now, don't you?"

A few minutes later, Dylan Keogh, who had been full of surprises himself over the last few days, stood in a room in ITU clutching a mug in one hand with a picture of a snowman throwing a ball on one side and "Dr Snowball" printed on the other and a large stocking full of doggy treats for Dervla in the other.

"Thank you for looking after me yesterday and at Macdonald's," said Sophie shyly.

"That's … er … quite alright," he replied just as shyly. "I've got a little present for you in the car actually. Would you like to come and get it with me?"

As the two of them made to walk out of the door, Graham looked across at Dylan and thanked him. The doctor nodded acceptance, then left with a beaming 6-year-old.

Noel walked forward and sat on Graham's bedside chair.

"Honestly mate, your daughter's been a breath of fresh air to our department. She's made such a difference to some of my colleagues. You're one extremely lucky man."

Graham's eyes glazed over again.

"I didn't realise," he confessed. "I've been so wrapped up in my own feelings over Cathy … I mean … I haven't seen Sophie so happy for a long time. I'll never be able to thank you enough for what you and your mates have done for her."

Noel patted him awkwardly on the shoulder, assured him that he would look after her until Graham had recovered, then quietly left the ward.

The others were still admiring Sophie's latest present when Noel clambered shivering back into the land rover a couple of minutes later. It was a dolls house, complete with miniature furniture and people. Noel gaped at Dylan who shrugged and pulled out of the car-park.

"That's from everybody," he said in his usual dismissive manner. "I was going to wait until I'd dropped you off home but it was a good incentive for taking her off the ward."

A highly enjoyable evening was had by all back at Dixie and Jeff's. Someone had hastily thrown together a buffet tea and the medics who were not required at the hospital stayed to help devour it. As she was on call, Dixie remained sober which gave her the excuse to drive Noel, his adopted niece and the huge quantity of presents home at around 8:30.

Sophie had fallen sound asleep by the time they arrived back at Noel's house. Leaving him to struggle inside with the bags of parcels, Dixie gently carried her inside and into the bedroom where she found a pair of pyjamas folded up on Sophie's pillow. She didn't even stir as Dixie undressed her, put her in her pyjamas and tucked her gently into bed with her teddies.

She found a perspiring Noel struggling to carry the parcels into the living room and ran to help.

"Mission successfully accomplished," she said proudly.

"She in bed?"

"Yes … but I meant the whole week. You've done something really special, kid. I'm proud of you."

"I couldn't have done it without all of you," Noel shrugged. It was Dixie's turn to shrug as she responded, "really? You took her in when social services almost certainly would have. You treated her like any kid of that age should be treated and forgot all about her disability. You were the one who decided to give her the best Christmas in the world. You were Santa. The rest of us were just his little elves."

They hugged warmly, then Dixie helped him into the living room with the parcels, wished him goodnight and merry Christmas and left to head back to the party.

Noel thought about what she had said as he opened a beer and sat down on the sofa. She was right. He'd been given a real chance to help someone in need and he had risen to the challenge. However, he hadn't just helped Sophie, she had helped him. By now, he would usually be half way to the next day's hangover having consumed a Marks and Spenser ready meal (which was still in his freezer) and a couple of mince pies. The house would be bare and unlit with not a Christmas decoration in sight. He was first rate at organising the department's Christmas parties, but he'd never been to Holby's annual tradition of the Twilight carols in the park on Christmas eve. Yet this year, he'd celebrated a real Christmas; a Christmas with all the goodwill and spirit that the festival deserved and that was all thanks to the little figure now dreaming happily in his rarely used spare bedroom.

He sat back and drained his beer almost in one. Then standing up slowly, he took another out of the fridge, flicked on the television and flopped back down on the sofa, completely contented.


	8. Sadness Happines Holby ED

Chapter 8: Sadness + Happiness = Holby ED

"Louise, can you pull up the details for Mr Davies in cubical 1? Dr Kent wants to get in touch with his GP."

Noel looked across at his reception buddy with a slightly sad expression on his face.

"Can't you do it?" she asked exasperated. "I'm dealing with a backlog as it is."

It was 25th January – exactly a month since the best Christmas of Noel's life and things had returned to more or less normal. There had been a few changes – Dr Keogh had left for pastures new, Nick Jordon was back and had resumed his position as clinical lead and Zoe had taken up a new year's resolution to give up smoking and everyone was suffering the consequences of this.

Graham had made an excellent recovery and had taken Sophie back home a week ago which had been a terrible wrench for the receptionist. He had left the decorations up until they had gone and now his house seemed even more empty than usual. He was also worried. Though Graham had promised him that he would pull himself together for Sophie's sake, Noel was worried that as soon as the enormous collection of Christmas presents had lost some of its appeal, he would suffer a relapse. Noel had promised him that he would do everything he could to help, but this would be a bit difficult when his old friend lived in Blackpool, miles away from Holby.

"Earth to Noel, are you receiving?"

Noel looked up at Tom who had apparently been talking to him for the last few seconds without the receptionist even noticing. He pulled himself back to reality.

"Yes, Dr Kent?"

"I need you to do me a massive favour and go and pick something up from the canteen for me. There's a resus case coming in in 5 minutes and I won't have time to have a proper lunch."

"I can do it," offered Louise and made to stand up.

"No, it's alright, I could do with stretching my legs!"

Noel sighed, stood up and headed towards the lifts still deep in thought. Not looking where he was going, he collided with an already irritated Zoe just in front of the bank of lifts - causing her to drop her cup of coffee all over the floor.

"For goodness sake! Why can't you watch where you're going?"

"I can. I was just miles away, that's all."

Zoe's expression softened as she realised who had bumped into her. She had fostered a little girl once, but had eventually been persuaded to allow her grandparents to take care of her. In spite of her bad mood, she felt extremely sorry for Noel as she said, "it's OK. Don't worry, it was only a take-away coffee. I'm sure the vending machine won't object to being fed another one of my limited supply of 50 pences."

Noel managed a small smile and reached out to call the lift but stopped short as the doors opened before he'd got anywhere near the button.

Two figures stepped out of the lift and would have bumped straight into the receptionist if he hadn't jumped out of the way. It was only when he had recovered from avoiding what would have been his second collision in as many minutes that he realised who was standing in front of him.

"Graham, is everything alright? Hi ya kiddo!"

He scooped the delighted Sophie up and hugged her tight.

"Fine," replied Graham with a shrug, "I've just been for my aftercare check-up."

"Couldn't you have done that in Blackpool?" asked Noel as best he could. Sophie's responding hug was almost strangling him.

"Nah. There wouldn't be any point."

"Guess what, uncle Noel? We're moving house!"

The little girl was beaming at him. Noel stared at Graham.

"We've decided that we've had enough of Blackpool," said Graham dismissively, "I think Sophie was missing her uncle Noel. So, we're moving to Holby."

"That's brilliant!"

Noel was delighted. He put Sophie back down and embraced his old friend – forgetting all about Graham's ribs until his face twisted in pain. The receptionist let him go with a hurried apology and simply smiled at the two of them.

"Actually," said his friend, "I was wondering if I could leave this one with you for an hour while I fly around a couple of letting agencies. She's got something for all of you. I was wondering if you could help her give them out?"

"Well, I am supposed to be working … Sod it! I'm taking my lunch break. Go on then."

Graham handed something to Sophie, told her to be good and strode out of the building. Intrigued, Noel bent down and plucked the bundle of envelopes out of Sophie's hand and asked, "what's that you've got there, kiddo?"

Riffling through them, he found the one labelled "Uncle Noel" and opened it. It was a card with a photo of all the staff in the department standing in the snow outside Dixie and Jeff's house – Sophie sitting proudly on his shoulders. The message inside read, "Dear uncle Noel, thank you very much for a lovely holiday. It was the best Christmas I've ever had. Lots of love from Sophie."

"There's one for everybody," she explained as Noel hugged her.

"I'll treasure it," he promised her, "and I'm sure everyone else will. Come on, let's go and give the rest to the others."

Noel was pleased to see the same delighted looks on his colleagues' faces as they received and opened their cards, all with their own personal photograph – some standing like Noel outside Dixie and Jeff's on Christmas day, some at the twilight carols, some on Santa's sleigh in the hospital car-park, some at the tree decorating party and big Mack's with himself and Sophie in their absurd tinsel outfits.

When this task had been done (Noel leaving a few on the desk for those medics who were working in resus), he was somewhat taken aback to find that he was still holding a sealed envelope. He looked at the label. It said "Dr Snowball". This must be for Dylan. But he'd left. He saw the sadness in his adopted niece's face as he explained this to her.

"But I wanted to give him his special card!" she said. "I wanted to tell him that when we move, daddy's going to get me a puppy."

Noel thought for a few seconds, then lifted Sophie up again and marched determinately out of the hospital building.

The snow had melted. There was now no trace whatever of the snowman they had built in the park 4 weeks ago, nor the hoof prints of the fake reindeer pulling the sleigh behind them. In fact, the relentless fall over the Christmas period had left a sloppy landscape of mud in its wake. Having failed to discover Dylan walking his dog in the park, Noel and Sophie returned to his car and drove towards the river - pulling up a short distance from Dr Keogh's houseboat. They were just about to get out of the car when Noel spotted him on the river bank – his dog sniffing about enthusiastically nearby.

They climbed out of the car and walked towards the oblivious form of Dylan who had his back to them. Noel whispered something to Sophie as they stopped a short distance from him – causing Dervla to give a short bark and bound in their direction. It was this sudden change in his dog's behaviour which made Dylan look up at Noel.

"If Zoe has sent the gofer to try to persuade me to come back to work at Holby, she's wasted your petrol," he said tartly.

"No no," responded the startled receptionist as he guided the frightened-looking Sophie forward.

"Hello, Dr Scary," she said timidly. Dylan's face fell as he realised what consequence jumping to this conclusion had had.

"Hello," he said stiffly, fluffing his words as usual. "I've been demoted back to scary again have I?"

"He's cross with us isn't he?" Sophie asked uncertainly.

"Of course he isn't. He just didn't expect us, that's all. Isn't that right, Dr Keogh?"

The doctor stood up.

"I'm going to make a coffee. Come on."

The two of them followed him nervously into his houseboat and sat down on the sofa while he poured Sophie a glass of fizzy pop and then busied himself with the kettle. When he had sat down, he said, "I'm sorry, Sophie. I just didn't expect you. It's lovely to see you."

"I've got something for you," she said nervously and held out the envelope. He took it from her and looked at the label, chuckled, then opened it.

The picture on the front showed Dylan standing in several inches of snow, Dervla sitting patiently beside him, waiting for Sophie (who he had lifted up) to throw the snowball she was holding. Reading her thank-you message, he placed the card down on a table beside him and said, "that's really sweet! Can I have a hug?"

The little girl obliged.

"My dad's going to get me a puppy so I can throw snowballs for her in the snow next time," she babbled excitedly as he hugged her. "And we're moving house so we can live near uncle Noel and you and Tom and big Mack and Sam and Dixie and Jeff and Zoe and Charlie and everybody!"

Dylan stared at her in admiration.

"I wish I could remember everyone's names like you can," he said. "Thanks for the card. I'll keep it forever."

"Where on earth have you been?"

Noel's face fell as he walked into reception half an hour later, having handed Sophie back to her father at the main entrance. Zoe was glaring at him as he took his place behind the reception desk.

"I was helping someone deliver some paperwork," he replied simply. "I'm sorry. I'm back now."

Zoe walked away wordlessly but was soon replaced by a furious looking Tom.

"Oi! What happened to my lunch?"

Noel swore and apologised.

"Forget it," Tom spat at him and turned away. As he walked off, Noel distinctly heard him say, "if you want a job done properly, you'd better do it yourself!"

He looked up again to see Charlie walking towards the desk. This time, the receptionist jumped in first.

"If you've come to have a go at me as well, I haven't done it!"

"I haven't," Charlie reassured him, "but you might do well to remember that Christmas is over now."

He was holding his thank-you card from Sophie in his hand, which depicted the little girl pulling a cracker with him at the tree party. Glancing at it one last time, he put it carefully back in his envelope and slid it into his pocket - hiding it from view as he concluded, "it's not wise to try and play Santa Claus when the snow's melted."


End file.
